cpython/Doc/library/http.client.rst

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:mod:`http.client` --- HTTP protocol client
===========================================
.. module:: http.client
:synopsis: HTTP and HTTPS protocol client (requires sockets).
.. index::
pair: HTTP; protocol
single: HTTP; http.client (standard module)
.. index:: module: urllib.request
**Source code:** :source:`Lib/http/client.py`
--------------
This module defines classes which implement the client side of the HTTP and
HTTPS protocols. It is normally not used directly --- the module
:mod:`urllib.request` uses it to handle URLs that use HTTP and HTTPS.
.. note::
HTTPS support is only available if Python was compiled with SSL support
(through the :mod:`ssl` module).
The module provides the following classes:
.. class:: HTTPConnection(host, port=None[, timeout], \
source_address=None)
An :class:`HTTPConnection` instance represents one transaction with an HTTP
server. It should be instantiated passing it a host and optional port
number. If no port number is passed, the port is extracted from the host
string if it has the form ``host:port``, else the default HTTP port (80) is
used. If the optional *timeout* parameter is given, blocking
operations (like connection attempts) will timeout after that many seconds
(if it is not given, the global default timeout setting is used).
The optional *source_address* parameter may be a tuple of a (host, port)
to use as the source address the HTTP connection is made from.
For example, the following calls all create instances that connect to the server
at the same host and port::
>>> h1 = http.client.HTTPConnection('www.python.org')
>>> h2 = http.client.HTTPConnection('www.python.org:80')
>>> h3 = http.client.HTTPConnection('www.python.org', 80)
>>> h4 = http.client.HTTPConnection('www.python.org', 80, timeout=10)
.. versionchanged:: 3.2
*source_address* was added.
.. versionchanged:: 3.4
The *strict* parameter was removed. HTTP 0.9-style "Simple Responses" are
not longer supported.
.. class:: HTTPSConnection(host, port=None, key_file=None, \
cert_file=None[, timeout], \
source_address=None, *, context=None, \
check_hostname=None)
A subclass of :class:`HTTPConnection` that uses SSL for communication with
secure servers. Default port is ``443``. If *context* is specified, it
must be a :class:`ssl.SSLContext` instance describing the various SSL
options.
*key_file* and *cert_file* are deprecated, please use
:meth:`ssl.SSLContext.load_cert_chain` instead, or let
:func:`ssl.create_default_context` select the system's trusted CA
certificates for you. The *check_hostname* parameter is also deprecated; the
:attr:`ssl.SSLContext.check_hostname` attribute of *context* should be used
instead.
Please read :ref:`ssl-security` for more information on best practices.
.. versionchanged:: 3.2
*source_address*, *context* and *check_hostname* were added.
.. versionchanged:: 3.2
This class now supports HTTPS virtual hosts if possible (that is,
if :data:`ssl.HAS_SNI` is true).
.. versionchanged:: 3.4
The *strict* parameter was removed. HTTP 0.9-style "Simple Responses" are
no longer supported.
.. versionchanged:: 3.4.3
This class now performs all the necessary certificate and hostname checks
by default. To revert to the previous, unverified, behavior
:func:`ssl._create_unverified_context` can be passed to the *context*
parameter.
.. class:: HTTPResponse(sock, debuglevel=0, method=None, url=None)
Class whose instances are returned upon successful connection. Not
instantiated directly by user.
.. versionchanged:: 3.4
The *strict* parameter was removed. HTTP 0.9 style "Simple Responses" are
no longer supported.
The following exceptions are raised as appropriate:
.. exception:: HTTPException
The base class of the other exceptions in this module. It is a subclass of
:exc:`Exception`.
.. exception:: NotConnected
A subclass of :exc:`HTTPException`.
.. exception:: InvalidURL
A subclass of :exc:`HTTPException`, raised if a port is given and is either
non-numeric or empty.
.. exception:: UnknownProtocol
A subclass of :exc:`HTTPException`.
.. exception:: UnknownTransferEncoding
A subclass of :exc:`HTTPException`.
.. exception:: UnimplementedFileMode
A subclass of :exc:`HTTPException`.
.. exception:: IncompleteRead
A subclass of :exc:`HTTPException`.
.. exception:: ImproperConnectionState
A subclass of :exc:`HTTPException`.
.. exception:: CannotSendRequest
A subclass of :exc:`ImproperConnectionState`.
.. exception:: CannotSendHeader
A subclass of :exc:`ImproperConnectionState`.
.. exception:: ResponseNotReady
A subclass of :exc:`ImproperConnectionState`.
.. exception:: BadStatusLine
A subclass of :exc:`HTTPException`. Raised if a server responds with a HTTP
status code that we don't understand.
.. exception:: LineTooLong
A subclass of :exc:`HTTPException`. Raised if an excessively long line
is received in the HTTP protocol from the server.
The constants defined in this module are:
.. data:: HTTP_PORT
The default port for the HTTP protocol (always ``80``).
.. data:: HTTPS_PORT
The default port for the HTTPS protocol (always ``443``).
.. data:: responses
This dictionary maps the HTTP 1.1 status codes to the W3C names.
Example: ``http.client.responses[http.client.NOT_FOUND]`` is ``'Not Found'``.
See :ref:`http-status-codes` for a list of HTTP status codes that are
available in this module as constants.
.. _httpconnection-objects:
HTTPConnection Objects
----------------------
:class:`HTTPConnection` instances have the following methods:
.. method:: HTTPConnection.request(method, url, body=None, headers={})
This will send a request to the server using the HTTP request
method *method* and the selector *url*.
If *body* is specified, the specified data is sent after the headers are
finished. It may be a string, a :term:`bytes-like object`, an open
:term:`file object`, or an iterable of :term:`bytes-like object`\s. If
*body* is a string, it is encoded as ISO-8851-1, the default for HTTP. If
it is a bytes-like object the bytes are sent as is. If it is a :term:`file
object`, the contents of the file is sent; this file object should support
at least the ``read()`` method. If the file object has a ``mode``
attribute, the data returned by the ``read()`` method will be encoded as
ISO-8851-1 unless the ``mode`` attribute contains the substring ``b``,
otherwise the data returned by ``read()`` is sent as is. If *body* is an
iterable, the elements of the iterable are sent as is until the iterable is
exhausted.
The *headers* argument should be a mapping of extra HTTP
headers to send with the request.
If *headers* does not contain a Content-Length item, one is added
automatically if possible. If *body* is ``None``, the Content-Length header
is set to ``0`` for methods that expect a body (``PUT``, ``POST``, and
``PATCH``). If *body* is a string or bytes object, the Content-Length
header is set to its length. If *body* is a :term:`file object` and it
works to call :func:`~os.fstat` on the result of its ``fileno()`` method,
then the Content-Length header is set to the ``st_size`` reported by the
``fstat`` call. Otherwise no Content-Length header is added.
.. versionadded:: 3.2
*body* can now be an iterable.
.. method:: HTTPConnection.getresponse()
Should be called after a request is sent to get the response from the server.
Returns an :class:`HTTPResponse` instance.
.. note::
Note that you must have read the whole response before you can send a new
request to the server.
.. method:: HTTPConnection.set_debuglevel(level)
Set the debugging level. The default debug level is ``0``, meaning no
debugging output is printed. Any value greater than ``0`` will cause all
currently defined debug output to be printed to stdout. The ``debuglevel``
is passed to any new :class:`HTTPResponse` objects that are created.
.. versionadded:: 3.1
.. method:: HTTPConnection.set_tunnel(host, port=None, headers=None)
Set the host and the port for HTTP Connect Tunnelling. This allows running
the connection through a proxy server.
The host and port arguments specify the endpoint of the tunneled connection
(i.e. the address included in the CONNECT request, *not* the address of the
proxy server).
The headers argument should be a mapping of extra HTTP headers to send with
the CONNECT request.
For example, to tunnel through a HTTPS proxy server running locally on port
8080, we would pass the address of the proxy to the :class:`HTTPSConnection`
constructor, and the address of the host that we eventually want to reach to
the :meth:`~HTTPConnection.set_tunnel` method::
>>> import http.client
>>> conn = http.client.HTTPSConnection("localhost", 8080)
>>> conn.set_tunnel("www.python.org")
>>> conn.request("HEAD","/index.html")
.. versionadded:: 3.2
.. method:: HTTPConnection.connect()
Connect to the server specified when the object was created.
.. method:: HTTPConnection.close()
Close the connection to the server.
As an alternative to using the :meth:`request` method described above, you can
also send your request step by step, by using the four functions below.
.. method:: HTTPConnection.putrequest(request, selector, skip_host=False, skip_accept_encoding=False)
This should be the first call after the connection to the server has been made.
It sends a line to the server consisting of the *request* string, the *selector*
string, and the HTTP version (``HTTP/1.1``). To disable automatic sending of
``Host:`` or ``Accept-Encoding:`` headers (for example to accept additional
content encodings), specify *skip_host* or *skip_accept_encoding* with non-False
values.
.. method:: HTTPConnection.putheader(header, argument[, ...])
Send an :rfc:`822`\ -style header to the server. It sends a line to the server
consisting of the header, a colon and a space, and the first argument. If more
arguments are given, continuation lines are sent, each consisting of a tab and
an argument.
.. method:: HTTPConnection.endheaders(message_body=None)
Send a blank line to the server, signalling the end of the headers. The
optional *message_body* argument can be used to pass a message body
associated with the request. The message body will be sent in the same
packet as the message headers if it is string, otherwise it is sent in a
separate packet.
.. method:: HTTPConnection.send(data)
Send data to the server. This should be used directly only after the
:meth:`endheaders` method has been called and before :meth:`getresponse` is
called.
.. _httpresponse-objects:
HTTPResponse Objects
--------------------
An :class:`HTTPResponse` instance wraps the HTTP response from the
server. It provides access to the request headers and the entity
body. The response is an iterable object and can be used in a with
statement.
.. method:: HTTPResponse.read([amt])
Reads and returns the response body, or up to the next *amt* bytes.
.. method:: HTTPResponse.readinto(b)
Reads up to the next len(b) bytes of the response body into the buffer *b*.
Returns the number of bytes read.
.. versionadded:: 3.3
.. method:: HTTPResponse.getheader(name, default=None)
Return the value of the header *name*, or *default* if there is no header
matching *name*. If there is more than one header with the name *name*,
return all of the values joined by ', '. If 'default' is any iterable other
than a single string, its elements are similarly returned joined by commas.
.. method:: HTTPResponse.getheaders()
Return a list of (header, value) tuples.
.. method:: HTTPResponse.fileno()
Return the ``fileno`` of the underlying socket.
.. attribute:: HTTPResponse.msg
A :class:`http.client.HTTPMessage` instance containing the response
headers. :class:`http.client.HTTPMessage` is a subclass of
:class:`email.message.Message`.
.. attribute:: HTTPResponse.version
HTTP protocol version used by server. 10 for HTTP/1.0, 11 for HTTP/1.1.
.. attribute:: HTTPResponse.status
Status code returned by server.
.. attribute:: HTTPResponse.reason
Reason phrase returned by server.
.. attribute:: HTTPResponse.debuglevel
A debugging hook. If :attr:`debuglevel` is greater than zero, messages
will be printed to stdout as the response is read and parsed.
.. attribute:: HTTPResponse.closed
Is ``True`` if the stream is closed.
Examples
--------
Here is an example session that uses the ``GET`` method::
>>> import http.client
>>> conn = http.client.HTTPConnection("www.python.org")
>>> conn.request("GET", "/index.html")
>>> r1 = conn.getresponse()
>>> print(r1.status, r1.reason)
200 OK
>>> data1 = r1.read() # This will return entire content.
>>> # The following example demonstrates reading data in chunks.
>>> conn.request("GET", "/index.html")
>>> r1 = conn.getresponse()
>>> while not r1.closed:
... print(r1.read(200)) # 200 bytes
b'<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"...
...
>>> # Example of an invalid request
>>> conn.request("GET", "/parrot.spam")
>>> r2 = conn.getresponse()
>>> print(r2.status, r2.reason)
404 Not Found
>>> data2 = r2.read()
>>> conn.close()
Here is an example session that uses the ``HEAD`` method. Note that the
``HEAD`` method never returns any data. ::
>>> import http.client
>>> conn = http.client.HTTPConnection("www.python.org")
>>> conn.request("HEAD","/index.html")
>>> res = conn.getresponse()
>>> print(res.status, res.reason)
200 OK
>>> data = res.read()
>>> print(len(data))
0
>>> data == b''
True
Here is an example session that shows how to ``POST`` requests::
>>> import http.client, urllib.parse
>>> params = urllib.parse.urlencode({'@number': 12524, '@type': 'issue', '@action': 'show'})
>>> headers = {"Content-type": "application/x-www-form-urlencoded",
... "Accept": "text/plain"}
>>> conn = http.client.HTTPConnection("bugs.python.org")
>>> conn.request("POST", "", params, headers)
>>> response = conn.getresponse()
>>> print(response.status, response.reason)
302 Found
>>> data = response.read()
>>> data
b'Redirecting to <a href="http://bugs.python.org/issue12524">http://bugs.python.org/issue12524</a>'
>>> conn.close()
Client side ``HTTP PUT`` requests are very similar to ``POST`` requests. The
difference lies only the server side where HTTP server will allow resources to
be created via ``PUT`` request. It should be noted that custom HTTP methods
+are also handled in :class:`urllib.request.Request` by sending the appropriate
+method attribute.Here is an example session that shows how to do ``PUT``
request using http.client::
>>> # This creates an HTTP message
>>> # with the content of BODY as the enclosed representation
>>> # for the resource http://localhost:8080/file
...
>>> import http.client
>>> BODY = "***filecontents***"
>>> conn = http.client.HTTPConnection("localhost", 8080)
>>> conn.request("PUT", "/file", BODY)
>>> response = conn.getresponse()
>>> print(response.status, response.reason)
200, OK
.. _httpmessage-objects:
HTTPMessage Objects
-------------------
An :class:`http.client.HTTPMessage` instance holds the headers from an HTTP
response. It is implemented using the :class:`email.message.Message` class.
.. XXX Define the methods that clients can depend upon between versions.